HARRY TRUMAN: This great Nation cannot afford to allow its citizens to suffer needlessly from the lack of proper medical care. Our ultimate aim must be a comprehensive insurance system to protect all our people equally against insecurity and ill health.

BILL MOYERS: But every time Harry Truman proposed legislation to do just that, Congress refused to budge. In the 1960s, John F. Kennedy took up the cause:

JOHN F. KENNEDY: Our working men and women, instead of being forced to ask for help from public charity, once they are old and ill, should start contributing now to their own retirement health program through the Social Security System…

BILL MOYERS: But his proposal failed in the Senate by just two votes.

On the other side, actor Ronald Reagan, still in private life, had signed on as the American Medical Association’s hired spokesman in their campaign against Medicare. Doctors’ wives organized thousands of small meetings in homes around the country, where guests listened to a phonograph record of Reagan deploring the evils of “socialized medicine”:

RONALD REAGAN: Behind it will come other Federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country […] until one day, as Norman Thomas said […] you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.

BILL MOYERS: But now, it was Lyndon Johnson’s turn. Tragically thrust into the White House by Kennedy’s assassination, LBJ, the son of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Harry Truman’s Fair Deal, vowed to finish what they had started. He pushed us relentlessly to get it done. … LBJ kept that promise. He pushed and drove and cajoled and traded, until Congress finally said yes. And so it was that 47 years ago, we traveled to Independence, Missouri, the hometown of Harry Truman, and there with the former president at his side, LBJ signed Medicare into law. Turning to Truman, whom he called “the real daddy of Medicare, ” Johnson signed him up as its first beneficiary. Harry Truman was 81.

At one particular Northern California commune I remember, sitting and staring silently into the wood-burning stove at night was referred to as "watching Channel 47." Forty-seven seemed like an impossibly high number back then.

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]]>http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/47/is-it-really-only-the-xvliith-super-bowl-i-dont-give-a-damn-about-seems-like-more/feed/0“The last sex between Neanderthals and modern humans likely occurred as recently as 47,000 years ago, the researchers added.” [47 in the news]http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/qotd/the-last-sex-between-neanderthals-and-modern-humans-likely-occurred-as-recently-as-47000-years-ago-the-researchers-added-47-in-the-news/
http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/qotd/the-last-sex-between-neanderthals-and-modern-humans-likely-occurred-as-recently-as-47000-years-ago-the-researchers-added-47-in-the-news/#commentsMon, 15 Oct 2012 13:47:00 +0000http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/?p=5321

It’s only September, but Mitt Romney has already written off almost half the country’s voters. A hidden-camera recording obtained by Mother Jones captures Romney at a private fundraiser telling donors that, “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.” Watch it:

]]>http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/47/the-distance-scale-of-the-universe-another-47/feed/0Your Subject is One You Never Tire Ofhttp://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/photos/your-subject-is-one-you-never-tire-of/
http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/photos/your-subject-is-one-you-never-tire-of/#commentsThu, 12 May 2011 17:47:00 +0000http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/photos/your-subject-is-one-you-never-tire-of/Continue reading Your Subject is One You Never Tire Of

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]]>OK, this isn’t exactly a photo topic, although it involves images in an album that I’ve been meaning to assemble. This might be about the meaning of life, devotion to a subject, or obsession. My special number (not entirely lucky nor magical, nor exclusively mine) is forty-seven. I see it almost daily without looking for it. Just a couple of days ago, I was working on my computer and noticed this one:

Forcing this back to photography, I love particular subjects, especially birds, bugs, and flowers. On the other hand, I’m less interested in photographing architecture, machines or people. Find the subject that captivates you. Your subject will also inspire and energize you.